4353 Tennyson Street

Now finished and leasing as The Vesper on Tennyson, the mixed-use building at 4353 Tennyson Street adds 34 apartments and ground-floor commercial space to the heart of Berkeley's main retail strip. Denver-based First Stone Development, partnered with Rooted Real Estate Company, delivered the three-story project with Schneider Building Company as general contractor, Dean Ricci Architect on design, and Raptor Civil Engineering handling site work.

The building sits on a 14,700-square-foot site and pairs 34 rental units with roughly 2,400 square feet of ground-level retail space, positioned to draw foot traffic from one of Denver's densest small-business corridors. Parking is handled through an automated system built into the site plan, a workaround for the math that governs most infill projects on Tennyson: minimum parking ratios eat into the square footage developers would rather lease to tenants.

First Stone marketed the project during construction under the working name The Jasper before it opened for lease as The Vesper on Tennyson, now managed by Cross Street. Units range from roughly 569 to 895 square feet across one- and two-bedroom layouts, including lofted plans with double-height ceilings.

First Stone's presence on this stretch of Tennyson goes back nearly a decade. CEO Lenny Taub, who built his career in NYC real estate before relocating to Denver in 2015, has assembled a string of sites along the corridor, including the 26-unit Condor Townhomes project a few blocks north at 4469 Tennyson St. Taub has previously described the parking-minimum math as the deciding factor in whether a Tennyson project pencils out at all, since digging a below-grade garage can sink a deal before it starts. The automated system at 4353 Tennyson reflects that same calculation, freeing up ground-floor square footage for the retail space instead of ramps and stalls.

The completion adds to a wave of new construction that has reshaped Tennyson Street over the past several years.

With The Vesper on Tennyson now welcoming residents, the project marks another data point in Berkeley's densification. The 2,400 square feet of ground-floor space remains available for lease, giving the next tenant a shot at one of Tennyson's most walkable blocks.